In 1886 the Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in public facilities was constitutional as long as it was “separate but equal.” In reality the races were separate but hardly equal. This lasted until it was repudiated by Brown v. Topeka in 1954. It took 58 years for the 14th Amendment to be recognized. According to the Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954) “Segregation of white and Negro children in the public schools of a State solely on the basis of race, pursuant to state laws permitting or requiring such segregation, denies to Negro children the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment – even though the physical facilities and other “tangible” factors of white and Negro schools may be equal” (Pp. 486-496.)
"due and deliberate speed"
Although the landmark Supreme Court ruling did not happen “with due deliberate speed” once the ball started rolling with the 1965 Civil Rights act change started to come to public education with regards to integration. “In 1963, about 1 percent of black children in the south attended schools with white children. By the early 1970s, the South had been remade – fully 90 percent of black children attended desegregated schools. Court orders proved most successful in the South, but were also used in an attempt to combat de facto segregation in schools across the country, from New York to Michigan to Arizona” (Jones, 2014.)
One would think that segregation is a thing of the past, but on the 60th anniversary of Brown v. Board public schools are becoming more segregated then they were in the past. Take the example of Central High School in Little Rock Arkansas. It became a test case in 1957 to determine if the chief executive, President Eisenhower, would enforce the court’s ruling after the governor, Orval Faubus, used the state’s National Guard to deny the 9 Negro children from entering the school. Not only did President Eisenhower federalize the National Guard, he sent the 101st Airborne Division to ensure that the Negro students weren’t molested and could freely go to class.
How have public schools fared with regards to integration since Brown v. Board? According to the National Center for Education Statistics “the percentage of white children enrolled in America's public schools -- 60 percent in 2001-2002 -- is 7 percentage points less than a decade before.” How has Little Rock Arkansas fared? According to the 2000 census Little Rock’s population is 55 percent white and 40 percent African-American”. The demographics however of the public schools is 70 percent African-American. This is a nationwide trend in both the North and South. Instead of schools moving forward and embracing diversity the trend seems to be a return to neighborhood or private schools. WHY? What are some of the factors that are leading the trend to schools becoming more segregated? Civilrights.org has identified “a number of factors that appear to have combined to cause the rapid resegregation of schools since 1991. First, beginning in the 1980s, courts turned against desegregation plans - denying new petitions to desegregate schools, ending previous court imposed plans and even striking down voluntary plans created by local school districts. Executive branch agencies have stopped the aggressive campaign to enforce the Brown decision and the Civil Rights Act that was so successful in the 1960s and '70s. At the same time, rapid growth in the Hispanic and African American population and growing income disparities have increased the concentration of minorities in high poverty districts.”
Facing South
Chart compiled by the Civil Rights Project showing changing demographics by region.
What Can Be Done if Anything?
Is there anything that can be done today to fix or reverse the issue of segregated schools in America? Rod Dreher, in his article "Can We Ever ‘Fix’ Segregated Schools?" argues that a fix will be difficult without these fixes being an "intolerable infringement on liberty, and a repeat of the mindless egalitarianism that destroyed so many public school systems in the 1970s?" Regardless on how you feel about the issue any "fixes" in todays political environment would take a massive bipartisan effort not only from state and federal government but most importantly at the local level.
To view a proposal aimed at providing educational (and technological) resources for students in a Title 1-funded school, please download the document below.
Brown v. Board of Education
In 1886 the Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in public facilities was constitutional as long as it was “separate but equal.” In reality the races were separate but hardly equal. This lasted until it was repudiated by Brown v. Topeka in 1954. It took 58 years for the 14th Amendment to be recognized. According to the Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954) “Segregation of white and Negro children in the public schools of a State solely on the basis of race, pursuant to state laws permitting or requiring such segregation, denies to Negro children the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment – even though the physical facilities and other “tangible” factors of white and Negro schools may be equal” (Pp. 486-496.)
"due and deliberate speed"
Although the landmark Supreme Court ruling did not happen “with due deliberate speed” once the ball started rolling with the 1965 Civil Rights act change started to come to public education with regards to integration. “In 1963, about 1 percent of black children in the south attended schools with white children. By the early 1970s, the South had been remade – fully 90 percent of black children attended desegregated schools. Court orders proved most successful in the South, but were also used in an attempt to combat de facto segregation in schools across the country, from New York to Michigan to Arizona” (Jones, 2014.)
One would think that segregation is a thing of the past, but on the 60th anniversary of Brown v. Board public schools are becoming more segregated then they were in the past. Take the example of Central High School in Little Rock Arkansas. It became a test case in 1957 to determine if the chief executive, President Eisenhower, would enforce the court’s ruling after the governor, Orval Faubus, used the state’s National Guard to deny the 9 Negro children from entering the school. Not only did President Eisenhower federalize the National Guard, he sent the 101st Airborne Division to ensure that the Negro students weren’t molested and could freely go to class.
How have public schools fared with regards to integration since Brown v. Board? According to the National Center for Education Statistics “the percentage of white children enrolled in America's public schools -- 60 percent in 2001-2002 -- is 7 percentage points less than a decade before.” How has Little Rock Arkansas fared? According to the 2000 census Little Rock’s population is 55 percent white and 40 percent African-American”. The demographics however of the public schools is 70 percent African-American. This is a nationwide trend in both the North and South. Instead of schools moving forward and embracing diversity the trend seems to be a return to neighborhood or private schools.
WHY?
What are some of the factors that are leading the trend to schools becoming more segregated? Civilrights.org has identified “a number of factors that appear to have combined to cause the rapid resegregation of schools since 1991. First, beginning in the 1980s, courts turned against desegregation plans - denying new petitions to desegregate schools, ending previous court imposed plans and even striking down voluntary plans created by local school districts. Executive branch agencies have stopped the aggressive campaign to enforce the Brown decision and the Civil Rights Act that was so successful in the 1960s and '70s. At the same time, rapid growth in the Hispanic and African American population and growing income disparities have increased the concentration of minorities in high poverty districts.”
Chart compiled by the Civil Rights Project showing changing demographics by region.
What Can Be Done if Anything?
Is there anything that can be done today to fix or reverse the issue of segregated schools in America? Rod Dreher, in his article "Can We Ever ‘Fix’ Segregated Schools?" argues that a fix will be difficult without these fixes being an "intolerable infringement on liberty, and a repeat of the mindless egalitarianism that destroyed so many public school systems in the 1970s?" Regardless on how you feel about the issue any "fixes" in todays political environment would take a massive bipartisan effort not only from state and federal government but most importantly at the local level.
To view a proposal aimed at providing educational (and technological) resources for students in a Title 1-funded school, please download the document below.
Bibliography
Brown v. Boad of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954). (n.d.). FindLaw | Cases and Codes. Retrieved May 28, 2014, from http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=347&invol=483
Dreher, R. (2013, November 5). Can We Ever ‘Fix’ Segregated Schools?. The American Conservative. Retrieved May 28, 2014, from http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/can-we-ever-fix-segregated-schools/
Drew, K. (2004, May 18). Today's battle in classrooms: Resegregation. CNN. Retrieved May 30, 2014, from http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/05/15/schools.desegregation/index.html
Hannah-Jones, N. (2014, May 1). Lack of Order: The Erosion of a Once-Great Force for Integration. Top Stories RSS. Retrieved May 28, 2014, from http://www.propublica.org/article/lack-of-order-the-erosion-of-a-once-great-force-for-integration
Resegregation. (n.d.). The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. Retrieved May 30, 2014, from http://www.civilrights.org/education/resegregation/
South still least segregated for black students, but progress stuck in 1967. (n.d.). The Institute for Southern Studies. Retrieved June 5, 2014, from http://www.southernstudies.org/2014/05/south-still-least-segregated-for-black-students-bu.html